IDOLS. cclxxiii 



the Den, including the errors from particular opinions, 

 called Idols of the Theatre. So that his doctrine of idols 

 may be thus exhibited : 



1. Of the Tribe. Of the Market. 



2. Of the Den. Of the Theatre. 



The Idols of the tribe, or warps to the judgment by which Idols of 

 all mankind swerve from the truth, are of two classes : the Tribe&amp;lt; 

 1st. When man is under the influence of a passion more 

 powerful than the love of truth, as worldly interest, crying, 

 &quot;Great is Diana of the Ephesians:&quot; or, 2ndly, when, 

 under the influence of the love of truth, he, like every lover, 

 is hurried, without due and cautious inquiry, by the hope 

 of possessing the object of his affections; which manifests 

 itself either in hasty assent, or hasty generalization, the 

 parents of credulity : in tenacity in retaining opinions, the 

 parentof prejudice: in abandoning universality, the parent 

 of feeble inquiry : (a) or in indulging in subtleties and 

 refinements and endless inquiry, the parent of vain specu 

 lations, spinning out of itself cobwebs of learning, admirable 

 for their fineness of texture, but of no substance or profit, (b) 



(a) Does not this originate in ignorance of the connexion 

 between all truths, as the quavering upon a stop in music 

 gives the same delight to the ear that the playing of light 

 upon the water, or the sparkling of a diamond, gives to 

 the eye ? 



(*) 



l. Passions more f * ^1% interest, 

 powerful than \% Y mformit y- 

 love of truth. \ 3 Arrangement. 



14. Simplicity, &c. &c. 



y 1 Generalization. 



Love of truth. 



2. Tenacity. 



3. Abandoning universality. 



4. Endless inquiry, &c. &c. 



VOL. xv. 



